


I'll Be There Until the End

by TheWiseOne12



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Homophobia, M/M, POV Multiple, POV Outsider, notNHL!Dylan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 03:44:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18275084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWiseOne12/pseuds/TheWiseOne12
Summary: “There was some guy that came in and grabbed your keys,” Auston told him.“A tall beanpole that looks like a bit like a raccoon?” he asked.“Yeah?” Auston said, bemused by the description.“Ok, that is cool. Are we heading out?”





	I'll Be There Until the End

Auston was waiting in the locker room for Mitch to finished talking to Coach. No one else was in there so he was sitting in his stall mucking around on his phone when a stranger came in.

“Hey, what are you doing in here?” Auston asked.

The stranger didn’t turn around at all, instead heading straight for Mitch’s stall and started rifling through his bag.

“Dude, you can’t be here,” he repeated.

The guy still didn’t say anything so Auston stood up and grabbed him by the shoulder, forcing him to turn to face him.

“I’m talking to you and you can’t be in here.”

It was the first time that he got a look at the stranger. He was about the same height but the stranger was much slimmer and looked like he needed sleep even more that Auston did.

“Mitch knows that I’m here. I’m just grabbing his keys,” the stranger said.

Auston didn’t really have anything else to say, trusting that Mitch did say that he could be in here and after a couple more moments the other guy found the keys in questions before heading out of the locker room.

He didn’t have to wait that much longer for Mitch to come and the smaller winger had a bright smile on his face.

“There was some guy that came in and grabbed your keys,” Auston told him.

“A tall beanpole that looks like a bit like a raccoon?” he asked.

“Yeah?” Auston said, bemused by the description.

“Ok, that is cool. Are we heading out?”

“Of course, are you coming around to play Fortnite?”

“Definitely”

Mitch grabbed his bag before following Auston out of the building.

“Who was the guy?” he asked Mitch.

“Just a friend, he needed to grab something from my place,” Mitch said.

Auston didn’t believe that he was completely telling the truth but Mitch clearly wasn’t going to tell him anything more so he didn’t ask him anymore. Auston changed the subject to the upcoming game and Mitch clearly had a few thoughts and that covered the whole trip back to Auston’s apartment.

They started playing but it was clear that Mitch was distracted. He kept glancing at his phone which meant that his attention wasn’t on the game.

“Are you alright over there?” Auston asked him.

“Sorry, just a bit distracted,” Mitch admitted.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really”

“Is it to do with it the guy that grabbed your keys?”

“Yeah, I think that I might head out,” Mitch said.

“Are you sure?”

Mitch nodded before leaving moments later leaving Auston feeling a bit strange and with a few things to think about. Auston didn’t really know any of Mitch’s friends that don’t play hockey so it wasn’t surprising by not knowing the guy.

It did also make him think about the fact that they barely go to Mitch’s apartment. Auston’s been there before but only a couple of times and it made him wonder if that had something do with this situation and it was something that Auston was going to ask him about it later.

 

********

 

Mitch was waiting outside Dubas’ office and stood there for a moment. He wasn’t looking forward to having this conversation but he needed to. He had put it off while Lou was in charge but now that Kyle was hoping it wouldn’t go badly. He was pretty sure that Coach was going to be there as well and he was hoping he would be fine with it as well.

He pushed the door open and found both men in question sitting at the desk.

“Hey, Mitchy, come and sit down,” Kyle smiled.

Mitch took a seat as directed and couldn’t help his knee from bouncing.

“Since you called this meeting do you want to start?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, well this is something that I potentially should have mentioned just in case before but I’m in a serious relationship with a guy,” Mitch started.

“So, you are gay?” Babs asked.

“I’m bi but yeah.”

“How long have you been together?” Kyle asked.

“Since we were 18, so coming up on 4 years.”

“Cool, if you ever want to come out then this organisation with support you,” Kyle smiled.

Mitch nodded and the tension in his shoulders released.

“Anything else you want to add?” Kyle asked.

Mitch shook his head so after adding his own supportive comments Babs headed out.

“My wife would kill me if I didn’t ask but would you and your partner like to come for dinner at some point?” Kyle asked.

“Um, it’s a little complicated and he doesn’t really want to come out to anyone at the moment but I can ask him,” Mitch admitted.

“Of course, just come and talk to me if you need to.”

Mitch nodded again and he had a smile on his face when he left the office, and the building, since he couldn’t believe that this conversation had gone so well. The drive back to the apartment wasn’t long and soon he was pushing the door open.

Dylan was in the kitchen and as soon as he noticed Mitch he moved over, hugged him before kissing him.

“How was it?” he asked.

“It was great. They were both really supportive,” Mitch started.

“That’s great.”

“And Kyle asked invited me and my partner to dinner with his wife,” he continued.

Dylan stopped and stared at him for a second.

“I said that I would talk to my partner and he said that was fine so it’s up to you.”

Dylan didn’t say anything instead stepping back and slamming himself down on one of the stools. Neither of them said anything for a minute as Dylan thought it through.

“Do you trust him?” he asked.

“Yes”

“Then tell him yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Not really, but yes.”

Mitch moved to stand in front of his boyfriend and wrapped him in a hug. They stood like that for a while and Mitch could feel Dylan relax in his arms.

“So, let’s have dinner with your GM.”

 

********

 

The dinner ended up being only a couple of days later and by the time they were about the leave the apartment both Mitch and Dylan were nervous about it. Mitch was driving them but he could see out of the corner of his eye he could see Dylan’s fingers drumming on his leg.

“It’ll be fine,” Mitch reassured him.

“Yeah.”

They didn’t talk again until Mitch pull up into the Dubas’s driveway and they paused there for a minute.

“Are you ready?” Mitch asked.

Dylan nodded so they got out together and headed to the door. Mitch took a breath before knocking on the door. It only took a second for it to open and for Kyle to be on the other side.

“Hey Mitch, and you must be his boyfriend,” Kyle said, welcoming both of them inside.

“Dylan”

Mitch had never been more relieved for Kyle’s poker face because it was clear that he recognised Dylan especially since he came from the OHL and still regularly follows it. Everyone in hockey would know who he was and Mitch was so glad that Kyle didn’t say anything.

Mitch and Dylan met years ago playing hockey and it took up until they completed together for Canada for them to get along. Dylan played for Erie and after snatching the score title away from him in their draft year he quit hockey before the playoffs.

It wasn’t something that he liked to talk about at all and no one in hockey knew where he went to or why he quit. It wasn’t something that he liked to rehash and now was really not the time.

“Shannon is in the kitchen,” Kyle told them before leading them into the house.

As soon as she noticed them she stopped cooking and moved round to hug both of them.

“Oh, look how tiny you look compared to your boyfriend Mitch,” she teased.

“Ha ha ha,” Mitch rolled his eyes.

They settled at the kitchen bench so that they could talk while Shannon continued to cook.

“So, what do you do then?” Kyle asked Dylan.

“I’m just about finished at U of T.”

“What’s your major?”

“Sports psychology and a minor in statistics so that I can focus on sports analytics,” Dylan explained.

“Really?”

Dylan nodded and Mitch turned to Shannon as the other two started talking about analytics because it wasn’t something Mitch knew a lot about.

“They are going to be talking about that for ages,” Mitch shrugged.

“Kyle will love it. He loves to talk about that and I have no idea what is going on,” Shannon laughed.

“Same with me and Kyle.”

Instead of talking about hockey Mitch asked Shannon more about herself until dinner was ready and they moved to the table.

“So, how did you guys start dating?” Kyle asked.

Mitch looked at Dylan, letting him tell the story so that he could share what details he wanted.

“It was after I stopped playing hockey and I was living with Mitch for a while and after explaining what had happened to me and that meant telling him about my sexuality. He then told me his as well. We didn’t talk about it for a while and then one day Mitch asked me out on a date,” Dylan explained.

“And you guys are living together?”

“Well, technically I’m living with him because I wasn’t sure if I was going to make the roster and he didn’t kick me out once I was staying on the team,” Mitch laughed.

He then yelped when Dylan jabbed him in the ribs. Kyle asked then a couple more simple questions about their relationship before moving onto other things. Mitch was pleased to see Dylan relax as the dinner went on as he felt more comfortable around the Dubas’s.

Kyle hugged both of them before they headed out before stopping to talk to Dylan.

“I’d love to get to have a look at some of your work and we might potentially have a job for you if you’d want it,” Kyle told him.

“Really?”

“Of course. You clearly have a good sense of hockey and you would have a good perspective.”

“Thanks”

Neither Dylan nor Mitch said anything for the first half of the drive before Mitch broke the silence.

“That was really nice,” he started.

“Yeah, I can’t believe that Dubas pretty much offered me a job once I finish my degree,” Dylan said.

“Definitely, that was awesome.”

Once they got back to the apartment they headed straight to bed without either saying anything until they were curled around each other.

“Kyle is great.”

“For sure, I’m glad that I told him,” Mitch smiled.

Dylan didn’t say anything in response and when Mitch twisted his head around he found that his boyfriend had already fallen asleep. He rolled his eyes at how quickly he could fall asleep but he was glad the dinner had gone well so Dylan was able to fall asleep.

 

*******

 

Once Dylan and Mitch had left Kyle helped Shannon clean up the dishes before they settled on the couch.

“Dylan looked familiar. How come I would recognise him?” Shannon asked.

“He played in the O. He was the kid that just up and left before the playoffs started.”

“I remember it happening. What were the details again?”  

“He won the OHL scoring title and then one practice he doesn’t show up. The team says it is just a rest day but then he didn’t show the next day so they had to admit that they didn’t know where he was. There was an attempted Police investigation but apparently he contacted them so it was dropped.”

“No one knows what happened to him. There was thought that he might still get drafted but he didn’t go to any of events for the draftees and no one has heard from him since. I didn’t say anything tonight because clearly he was traumatised enough by something to quit to hockey when he clearly loves it. Something he doesn’t want to talk about.”

“Of course, here was a short documentary about it or something wasn’t there?” Shannon asked.

“Yeah, it pretty much boiled down to no one knew what happened to him. Clearly he has been here studying since then. If I had to guess I would guess that after leaving Erie, he went either to Mitch’s billets or his families place. That how they got close.”

“They look good for each other.”

“For sure. I’m glad Mitch told us.”

“Do you think that he is thinking of telling the team?”

“I don’t think so, I got the feeling he was telling us just in case something happened and they were outed so I think it was will stay quiet for a while longer.”

 

 

*******

 

Auston hadn’t really spared any time thinking about the friend of Mitch’s that had appeared in the locker room that once until he appeared again. This time it was before practice instead and everyone was in there and started to suit up for practice.

He only got a quick look at the guy’s face and could see that he had tears running down his face. He headed straight for Mitch. He hadn’t pulled his pads so he could pull the stranger in for a tight hug as the guy buried his face into Mitch’s neck.

“What’s the matter?” Mitch asked.

The only reason Auston could hear was because his stall was right next Mitch’s.

“Someone recognised me,” the guy whispered.

“What did you do?” Mitch asked.

“I lied and hid around the corner to have a panic attack. I was going to try and go to my lecture but my hands can’t stop shaking so I can’t drive home and I don’t want to take the bus because I don’t want to see anyone.”

“OK, I’ll go talk to Coach and then I’ll take you home.”

Mitch let go of the stranger before heading out of the room, presumably in search of Babs. The stranger settled down in Mitch’s stall and leant over so that no one could see his face. The locker room had silenced but no one wanted to talk to Mitch’s friend.

It didn’t take long for Mitch to appear again.

“Coach says it is fine to skip practice,” he told the guy.

He nodded as Mitch pulled his shoes back on, tugged his hoodie on and grabbed his phone and wallet out of his locker.

“I’ll see you guys before the game,” Mitch said.

Auston wasn’t the only one that looked like he was he wanted to protest him skipping practice but thought better. The pair disappeared out of the room and no one said anything for a few more minutes.

Practice was a bit strange without Mitch cracking jokes most of the time. Auston kept turning to say something to him but he wasn’t there. And then afterwards he was used to often hanging out with Mitch but he clearly couldn’t.

He then happened to be nearby when someone asked Babs about Mitch’s absence.

“He had a personal matter to attend to.”

“Will he be playing tonight?” someone asked.

“Yes, he will be.”

A couple more reporters tried to ask him a bit more about it but Babs wouldn’t say anything about it. Auston wanted to find out the details as well but it was clear that Babs wasn’t going to tell any of the players anything either so he just leaves to eat and nap.

By the time he makes it back to the arena Mitch was already there. Auston couldn’t help but notice that he looked a little worn out.

“Are you alright?” Auston asked.

“Yeah, just had a bit of a rough day,” Mitch admitted.

“What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Auston wanted to ask more questions but it was clear that Mitch wasn’t going to talk about it. The game was an easy win in which Auston and Mitch both has two points and there was plans to go out.

“Are you coming out tonight?” Auston asked Mitch.

“Not tonight”

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Auston tried to convince him.

“No, I’m just going to go home.”

Auston tried to add something else but the winger grabbed his stuff and headed out.

“Do you think that he will be alright?” Mo asked, coming over.

“I think so. Probably just dealing with something today and should be fine tomorrow,” Auston told him.

Mo nodded and Auston let himself get swept up in plans to go out and let himself stop thinking about other things and let himself have a fun time.

 

*******

 

Mitch headed straight home after the game and found Dylan already in bed, curled around Mitch’s pillow.

“You looked good,” he whispered.

“Thanks.”

Mitch quickly changed out of his suit before curling around Dylan’s back which didn’t work since Dylan had three inches on him.

“So, you watched the game then?” Mitch asked.

“Yeah, I’m feeling calmer now.”

Mitch hummed slightly and Dylan wriggled around so that they were facing each other.

“Thanks for leaving practice for me,” he whispered.

“Of course, I always would. And I think that Dubas likes you more than me,” he teased.

Dylan laughed slightly and Mitch thought that he was going to add something but when he didn’t say anything for a moment Mitch realised that he had fallen asleep. He huffed slightly before curling into Dylan’s arms and fell asleep moments later.

When he woke up Dylan had already got up and found him in the kitchen.

“What are your plans for the day?” Mitch asked him.

“I’ve got classes most of the morning but my afternoon is free. You’ve just got practice?” he asked.

“Yeah, we should do something this afternoon if you don’t have much work to do,” Mitch suggested.

Dylan agreed and he had to head out moment later leaving Mitch alone in the kitchen. He didn’t have long before had to leave as well. It meant that he scoffed his toast before heading out as well.

By the time he made it to the rink the locker room was half full already including Auston.

“Do you want to do something after practice?” he asked.

“Sorry, I’ve got plans with one of my friends from Toronto,” he said.

“Really, come on, you seem to be spending time people not on the team at the moment,” Auston complained.

Mitch wanted to tell him that he was spending his afternoon with his boyfriend but that was a bad idea so he just shrugged instead. He pulled his pads on before heading out onto the ice. He was one of the first one out on the ice but he wasn’t surprised when Mo approached him.

“Did you get everything sorted yesterday?” he asked.

“It’s not something that really gets sorted but it’s better than yesterday.”

“Are you going to have to miss another practice?” Mo asked.

“I hope not.”

“Just remember, that you can come and talk to me about it.”

Mitch nodded but was pretty sure that he was not going to doing that. He didn’t get a chance to say anything else as Babs came out and started practice. Practice was relatively normal and by the time he made it back into the locker room he had a text from Dylan.

_If you come and pick me up then I’m free for the afternoon_

Since Auston already knew that he wasn’t going to be hanging out so he could escape without being pulled into a conversation. It didn’t take long to pull up in front of campus and Dylan slid into the passenger seat.

“How was your morning?” Mitch asked him.

“Eh, pretty boring. How was practice?”

“The same as usual.”

They thought about going out for lunch but neither of them could be bothered with that so Dylan offered to cook instead. Mitch was a terrible cook so he wasn’t going to offer. Dylan, on the other hand, had learnt from Mitch’s Mom when he lived with them so he was pretty good and cooked most of their meals.

As soon as they made it into the apartment Dylan headed into the kitchen and Mitch sat down at the bench.

“How are you feeling better?” Mitch asked him.

“Yeah, it was just the terror of being recognised,” he admitted.

“Yeah”

“And then I couldn’t stop but thinking about why I left and I couldn’t calm down.”

“Fuck, I wish that I could make this better for you,” Mitch whispered, standing up and hugging him.

Dylan wrapped his arms around Mitch and they stood like that for a minute. Dylan’s head was resting on Mitch’s and Mitch could feel him relax.

“OK, if you want food I should start cooking,” Dylan started.

Mitch squeezed him once before letting him go and sitting back down.  As Dylan cooked Mitch talked more about what he had been up to at practice and how the team was going. Dylan had told him a long time ago that he liked listening to Mitch talk about anything.

By the time that it was finished they moved to eat in the lounge, watching highlights from the night before.

“I’ve been talking to your GM,” Dylan started.

“About the job offer?” Mitch asked.

“Yeah, I haven’t got much work left for my degree so that would be a great starting job.”

“Definitely, I’m sure you’d be amazing at it.”

“Thanks, I think that Kyle has more belief in my abilities than I do.”

“As long as you aren’t recommending that I get benched or traded,” Mitch teased.

“Of course not, I’d recommend that you get sent to the Marlies,” Dylan smirked.

“Ha ha ha, definitely seeing that going over well.”

“For sure, you don’t any problems with me working for the Leafs though?”

“Never.”

That helped Dylan relax a bit more and since they were both finished eating Mitch moved their plates aside before moving to sit in his boyfriend’s lap.

“So, got any plans for the afternoon?” Mitch asked.

“No, but I think you do.”

Mitch smirked at him getting up and leading him in the direction of the bedroom.

 

*******

 

The locker room was pretty joyous after the win over the Oilers, especially since it was a pretty convincing win. The media had just left and most of the guys had already changed out of their gear. Auston looked up and noticed Connor McDavid standing in the doorway.

“Davo, it’s great to see you man,” he said, getting up and offering him a bro hug.

Of course, Auston wasn’t the only one that knew Davo, Dermy and Brownie joining the conversation as well having played with him in Juniors. After talking to them for a while Davo noticed Mitch sitting in his stall and headed over to talk to the winger.

“Hey, Mitchy how are you?” Davo asked.

“I’m great, how are you?” Mitch asked.

Auston looked at Mitch because he didn’t sounds completely truthful but didn’t want to interrupt the conversation to find out. The two exchanged polite conversation for a minute but it was clear that Davo wanted to ask him something.

“So, where is he?” Davo asked Mitch.

“Who?”

“Drop it, you know who I’m talking about it. I wanted to talk to him?”

“Even if I did know where Dylan is, and I don’t, there if no fucking way I would let him anywhere near you.”

“I was a teenager and I made a mistake. I just want to apologise.”

“No, you ruined his life and I don’t really want anything to do with you either,” Mitch snapped.

“Come on, Mitchy, aren’t we friends?” Davo asked him.

“No, and I’d rather not have to talk to you again.”

Auston stared at both of them as Mitch grabbed his stuff and headed out without saying anything else. No one said anything for a moment until Mitch was definitely out of earshot.

“What did you do to him?” Auston asked.

“I didn’t think that I really did anything to him. I made a mistake when I was younger involving a mutual friend and clearly Mitch is making it a bigger deal than it was,” Connor explained.

Auston could believe that, Mitch did tend to be a bit dramatic.

Usually Auston would offer to go out for a drink but the Leafs are flying out to Long Island tonight before a game tomorrow and the Oilers have one as well.

“Anyway, it was good to brief catch up with you,” Auston told Davo.

He nodded and before he had to head back to his own team. Auston headed out as well and when he found Mitch talking quietly on the phone.

“Dyls, it drives my fucking mental that he thinks that I would tell him where you are and that if he fucking apologised everything would be fine,” Mitch vented.

When he looked up he noticed Auston so he paused his conversation to talk to him.

“Hey, Auston.”

“Hey, finished with your dramatic reaction to whatever small thing Davo did,” Auston teased.

Mitch stared at him before taking a deep breath.

“Because Davo can’t do anything fucking wrong, right?” Mitch snapped.

“Come on, I didn’t really mean it like that,” Auston protested.

“Of course not, no one does but no one thinks that Davo can really hurt people.”

“I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“I’m not talking about this with you. In fact I’m not going to talk to you,” Mitch snapped.

Auston didn’t know what to say to that as Mitch stood up and left before continuing to talk to that person on the phone. He didn’t bother trying to talk to him until they reached their hotel since they were sharing a room.

Auston tried to talk to him a couple of times but Mitch shut it down quickly.

“I’m not talking to you tonight but I’ll probably to over it tomorrow,” he admitted as they both crawled into bed.

Auston nodded and he still was unsure what had caused Mitch to have such a large reaction but he wasn’t going to ask him in case he got anymore annoyed so instead he headed straight to sleep.

 

*******

 

Mitch did mostly forgive Auston the next day since he didn’t know what McDavid had done so he couldn’t really stay mad at him. Everyone was waiting for video to start and Auston was scrolling through something on his phone and laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Mitch asked.

“Someone showed me this tweet. It’s this guy that reviews every game after live tweeting it and this is one from our last game about me,” Auston explained.

“And what does it say?”

“Auston Matthews would skate so much better if he ever got his head out of his ass.”

Mitch laughed but something about that sounded exactly he had already heard and he couldn’t figure out who it was. He didn’t have any time to think about it since Babs came in and video started so he had other things to focus on.

It wasn’t until he was driving home when he realised exactly who had said it and realised that it was something that Dylan had jokingly told Mitch to tell Auston. When he got up to their apartment he found that Dylan wasn’t back yet so he found the twitter account with the tweet and started to scroll through.

It was pretty much what Auston had explained it was. The person behind the account would tweet their thoughts throughout the game then after the game would write a report about it on their website.

After scrolling through a few games worth of tweets it was clear that the person knew a lot about hockey because they were extremely insightful.

By the time Dylan came in and sat down beside him, Mitch was back looking at tweets from a game in January. It was pretty clear that the person was Dylan because there were things that Mitch knew that Dylan had said and things that sounded like Dylan.

“How are you?” Dylan asked.

“I’m good but Auston read me out a tweet and it sounded familiar and when I looked through the account I know who is behind it,” Mitch started, showing him his phone.

Dylan looked at it for a second before realising what Mitch had been looking at.

“How come you created this account?” Mitch asked.

“It was after I started watching Leafs games and it turns out I have a lot of opinions about the game and started tweeting about it. And then people liked my thoughts and I started writing more before I started writing reports after every game,” Dylan explained.

“Did you design the website?”

“Yeah, a guy from one of my lectures taught me how to do it but once it is up it’s pretty easy to add a new report after each game.”

“And how did you do this without me knowing?”

“Because I’d write most of it throughout the game so I could publish it not long after the game.”

“I like it. This is great.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s awesome, does Kyle know about it?”

“Of course, he read heaps of it and it made him want to hire me more,” Dylan smiled.

“Would you think about going into journalism at some point?” Mitch asked.

“Not really, I like writing about the game so that I can share my thoughts but I don’t really want to take it any further than that.”

Mitch wrapped an arm around Dylan as he leant down so that his head was resting Mitch’s shoulder.

“I’m proud of you,” Mitch told him.

Dylan smiled slightly and Mitch continued to read through his old tweets. Mitch and Dylan talked a lot about hockey but he didn’t know that Dylan had had this many thoughts. It was awesome to see his thoughts and it made him extremely proud.

 

*******

 

Auston was hanging around in the locker room after practice. He was thankful not to have to do media today because answering inane questions was not fun. It meant that he was around for Mitch’s media scrum.

“How long have you known that you are gay?” someone asked him.

“What?” Mitch asked.

“There are pictures of you kissing another guy,” someone else told him.

Auston logged into twitter and managed to find it quickly. It was taking from what looked like an elevator camera. It was clearly Mitch and he was holding hands with that guy that he had seen in the locker room a couple of times and then they kissed once before getting out.

Someone showed it to Mitch and he looked shocked.

“I’m bisexual and the other man in the photo is my boyfriend of four years,” Mitch explained.

“And do your teammates know?”

“No, I haven’t told anyone on the team.”

“Why not? Are you ashamed?”

“No, the last time that my boyfriend came out to someone he then outed him to all their friends and his family and it didn’t go well so we decided that we didn’t want to go through that again.”

“Your boyfriend Dylan Strome?” someone asked.

That wasn’t a name that Auston recognised but clearly a number of other in the room did.

“Yes”

A few questions got yelled at him at once but Dubas then came over.

“The fact that this photo got shared is a complete breach of privacy and we won’t be commenting further on this at this time. It is time for everyone here to leave,” Dubas stated.

A few reporters tried to ask a couple more questions but they quickly got ushered out. As soon as they were all gone Mitch wrapped Dubas in a tight hug.

“I’m sorry this happened,” Mitch sobbed.

“It’s not your fault and what I said was true. It was a breach of privacy that that photo was shared,” Dubas reassured the winger.

“And I basically had to out Dylan and everyone is going to know where he is again,” Mitch continued.

“Mitch, he will completely understand. Call him.”

Mitch nodded and the pair sat down in two empty stalls. Dubas kept an arm around Mitch as he pulled his phone out and called his boyfriend. A lot of the players were still in the room but Mitch didn’t care, as the phone was clearly on speakerphone.

“Mitch? Are you alright?” the voice asked.

“It just fucking sucks. I had to admit that it was you that I was dating,” Mitch told him.

“Mitchy, I don’t care about that. Are you with someone?” the man asked.

“He’s with me Dylan and we’re still in the locker room. I can drive him home once we are done,” Dubas said.

They talked for a minute longer before hanging up. No one said anything for a minute but everyone, including Auston, had a lot of questions but no one wanted to be the first one to ask.

“I’m not ready to talk about this today. I’m going to go home and talk to my boyfriend and we can talk about it tomorrow,” Mitch told the room at large.

Everyone nodded because they weren’t going to get anything else out of him today. Mitch quickly grabbed all his stuff and headed out with Dubas. Auston didn’t know what to say but he noticed that Dermy and Brownie were looking at each other.

“What are you thinking?” Mo asked them.

“We know Dylan Strome,” Dermy explained.

This clearly clicked for a few other players.

“Who is that?” Auston asked.

“He played in the O with us and then the year after Brownie left Dylan was still playing with us and then right before quitting and leaving right before the playoff of his and Mitch’s draft year. No one in hockey knows what happened to him or why he quit,” Dermy explained.

A few of the others clearly had heard about it so they nodded.

“Why do you think that Mitch never told us about it?” Gards asked.

No one seemed to have any answer. Auston felt a bit betrayed that Mitch had never told him because Mitch was his best friend on the team and he had never mentioned anything about dating anyone or Dylan at all.

He didn’t know what to say so he left but he was still thinking about it. It was clear that Mitch had told Dubas about it because he knew who Mitch’s boyfriend was and knew exactly what to say so he definitely already knew about it.

Auston couldn’t stop thinking about it and was still thinking about it the next morning. They were called in before practice to talk it through. By the time he made it into the room Mitch was already there and he looked like he hadn’t slept much that night. He wasn’t talking to anyone and both Babs and Dubas were there as well.

“Mitch is going to tell you as much as he wants to. After that we are going to have a conversation about what this mean and where to go from there,” Dubas explained.

Everyone in the room nodded and it took Mitch a minute to collect himself before starting to talk.

“I’m not going to tell you all the details because it’s not all my story. Some of you know or know of Dylan so you might know some of this. Both being from Toronto Dylan and I first met when we were young and we both hated each other for a while before becoming friend while at a tournament for Canada,” he started.

“We were friends for a while before some shit when down with his team. His family then kicked him out and as soon as he told me all of his I called my Mom and she drove down to Erie, helped him to move all his stuff so he lived with us.”

“We talked about our sexuality after a while and then started dating not long after that. I got sent back to London and we had a long conversation about whether our relationship was worth continuing given I was going to be apart for a while. We eventually decided that it was worth it and I’m glad we did.”

“We then started living together once I was playing for here. We then talked more about whether I was going to tell you guys. He was pretty unsure about it because the first time he came out he had a lot of problems. He told me that he was fine with me telling people but I could tell that he was just doing it for me so I didn’t. It’s why I didn’t say anything to you guys,” Mitch finished.

No one said anything for a minute trying to collect their thoughts.

“Can we get to meet him?” Mo asked, softly.

“He wants meet you guys but not all at once and he says that three or four people that I invite can come around after practice,” Mitch said.

There was then a conversation about sexuality and that if anyone had a problem then go and talk to Dubas. Auston was glad to get out of that meeting and out to practice because that was more normal.

 

*******

 

Mitch had thought long and hard about who he was going to invite to meet Dylan. He dropped the idea of Dermy, Brownie or JT as they knew Dylan and he didn’t want that. He was half thinking about it throughout practice and he was glad once they were done.

Kyle was really nice and banned all media from locker room and he was the only one to talk to them. Mitch hid in the corner and listened. He couldn’t believe some of the shit that was being asked but Kyle was incredibly supportive of Mitch and Dylan.

Luckily there were some really nice reporters that asked really nice questions and Mitch made an effort to be nice to them then they interviewed him later. By the time he is ready to leave most of the guys were already ready and clearly waiting for me.

Mitch wasn’t sure how to go about this without hurting the other guys. There was no possible way so he first moved to talk to Mo.

“Can you come and meet Dylan?” Mitch asked.

Mo nodded and he repeated the interaction with Zach who also agreed. He then looked at the locker room and there were a few expectant faces. He knew that Auston would be expecting him to ask him since they were best friends but he wasn’t sure.

He knew that Auston was good friends with McDavid and he wasn’t sure if McDavid had told him anything about his interaction with Dylan and his usual lies so he wasn’t going to risk it. Instead Mitch turned towards their large goaltender.

“Freddie, do you want to come and meet Dylan?” he asked the ginger.

He agreed and Mitch didn’t want to invite anyone else so that they didn’t overwhelm Dylan. The four of them headed out of the arena.

“Thank you for trusting us,” Zach said.

“Well, you guys are the people that I trust not to cause any problems,” Mitch admitted.

Mo sighed slightly because he had tried to stop someone of the homophobic comments that came up in the locker room but he couldn’t do anything. It’s why Mitch trusted him and both Freddie and Zach would never say anything insulting either.

The drive didn’t take long and soon they were heading up in the lift of his apartment building. When he pushed opened the door. Dylan must have been in the kitchen because he then appeared.

“Hey, I’m Dylan,” he said.

The other three introduced themselves to Dylan before moving into kitchen so that everyone can eat the lunch that Dylan had made before they settled at the table.

“So, what do you do?” Zach asked.

Dylan explained his major at university and Freddie seemed to be quite interested in his major. They started talking about it. Freddie mentioned that it was something that he had looked into a little bit when he was struggling in Anaheim. He and Dylan continued to talk about the pressure put on sports players.

It was interesting to hear how Freddie talked about it and what he had to say was interesting. Once everyone was finished eating Dylan collected up the plates and Zach offered to help clean them up. Mitch could hear the conversation and it seems to be about Zach’s books.

“Did you ever do any English or History courses?” Zach asked Dylan.

“I took one as a mandatory course requirement in my first year but nothing past that,” Dylan explained.

“And you didn’t enjoy it?”

“Not really. I’ll leave that stuff for you,” Dylan teased.

They didn’t have a game tonight so the other three had free time for the afternoon. Mitch knew that he made the right decision as to who to invite because he could see that Dylan was relaxed around his three teammates.

Since they were no longer eating they moved into the lounge. Mitch settled in the corner of the couch and Dylan sat down beside him as his teammates sat down around the room. The conversation kept going as comfortably as before and Mitch was relaxing as well.

He was talking to Zach and he didn’t realise that Dylan was falling asleep again his shoulder. He wasn’t surprised that Dylan was asleep since he was working a lot at the moment trying to get his last courses to complete his degree.

“How is he?” Mo genuinely asked.

“Kyle has managed hold most of the media off but I’m going to have to make a statement and I’ve managed to protect Dyls from it but I know it can’t be like that forever,” Mitch admitted.

“We can try and help as well. Just come and talk to us if you ever need to,” Mo reassured Mitch.

“Thanks, it’s nice to know that I can trust you guys.”

“Of course, you and Dylan are clearly good for each other and it doesn’t matter who he is or what he was done,” Freddie explained.

If Dylan wasn’t asleep on his shoulder Mitch would have got up and hugged all of them. Instead all he could do was whisper a wobbly thank you and wipe a tear from his cheek.

“Oh, Mitchy, of course,” Zach added.

He then changed the subject to a more light-hearted subject. By the time Dylan had woken up from his nap the conversation had been changed to their upcoming schedule and the swing through Western Canada.

“Hey, you’re awake,” Mo commented.

“Shit, sorry for falling asleep,” Dylan apologised.

“It’s alright. We have kind of been here for a while,” Zach smiled.

The conversation continued to talk about hockey and Dylan made sure to add his own thoughts and his teammates seemed to like his thoughts. Zach was the first one that had to leave and Mo headed out not long after. They both made sure to hug Dylan before leaving and telling him to talk to them if he wanted to talk or just meet.

Freddie didn’t have anywhere to be so he ended up staying for dinner as well. Mitch mostly let Dylan and Freddie talk all through it as they seemed to get along well and Mitch didn’t think that he had ever heard Freddie talk that much.

By the time Freddie was ready to leave he and Dylan were best friends.

“Come and talk to me if you ever want to talk,” he told Dylan.

Dylan nodded and smiled brightly at Freddie as he left. Mitch couldn’t help his own smile as he was so proud of his choices.

“Thanks for this,” Dylan said, stepping into his arm.

“Well, thank you for meeting you teammates,” Mitch added.

They stood like that for a while and both of them were happy with how the day had gone.

 

*******

 

Mitch was slightly later than usual to practice that morning so he didn’t have a chance to talk to anyone and headed straight out onto the ice. Practice was the same as usual with Coach preparing them for the game tonight.

The locker room was loud afterwards and everyone was in a good mood except for Auston, who seemed to be sitting in his own pocket of silence. Mitch headed over to talk to him.

“Hey, do you want to go out for lunch?” Mitch asked.

Auston nodded. Kyle had given him another day to escape the media so once they were able to leave as soon as they changed before heading to their usual lunch place. Mitch noticed throughout the drive that Auston was quieter than usual and wasn’t talking much.

Mitch took this opportunity to talk more and lets his thoughts about the upcoming game and things from around the league and Auston didn’t add much. The both knew what they were going to order so they both did, picked it up and headed to Auston’s apartment.

They settled on his couch to eat and Auston still wasn’t talking much.

“Hey, are you alright?” Mitch asked him.

“What do you mean?” Auston asked.

“You’ve been really quiet today,” Mitch explained.

“I’m just a bit annoyed with you and how you treated me yesterday.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, since I am your best friend I was expecting that you would invite me to meet you boyfriend especially since I was disappointed to have never meet him before. And since you didn’t I felt extremely let down and felt like we aren’t as good as friends as I thought,” he spat.

“I was just trying to protect Dylan and I picked three people that I knew he would relax around and I was right.”

“What’s wrong with me?”

“I couldn’t be sure what McDavid had told you.”

“What’s wrong with Davo? I don’t get what he ever did to you,” Auston protested.

“It’s not my story to tell.”

“Davo is one of the best people I know and would never hurt anyone.”

“Fine, you want to know then I’ll fucking tell you. Dylan played with McDavid in Erie and they were best friends. Then not long before the playoffs before our draft. Dylan had realised that he was gay and with McDavid being his best friend he told him.”

“McDavid didn’t say much, nothing rude, nothing supportive. It turns out he is extremely homophobic and he told all of their friends and then Dylan’s family. I didn’t care since I was bi so I called Dylan.”

“When I got hold of him he was in tears. His parents had kicked him out and almost all his team is bullying him and he couldn’t do it anymore. He hated hockey so much he couldn’t continue playing. I called my Mom and she immediately drove the long distance, helped him pack up all his stuff and he moved into our house.”

“I didn’t really get to see him until my season finished and when I did I was so upset. He was so sad and he was still hurt. McDavid and some other people were still sending him abusive and rude messages. Dyls still goes to therapy to copy with them and he is still depressed due to this. It isn’t as bad as it was immediately after but he still has bad swings.”

“So, that’s why I hate McDavid because of what he did to Dylan. And I couldn’t be sure if he told you his views about homosexuality and I wasn’t going to bring that on him after everything that he had already gone through,” Mitch finished.

“Well, if you had asked me then I could have told you that I knew nothing,” Auston protested.

“That’s what you want to say first?” Mitch snapped.

Auston started to protest again but Mitch cut him off.

“No, as someone that claims to be my best friend you are one person that hasn’t given a supportive message. I’m not hanging around to listen to you,” he snapped,

Auston kept trying to protest but Mitch was having none of it. At this point he was pretty sure that Auston didn’t have a problem with his relationship with another guy but he hadn’t said anything. Mitch grabbed his stuff and headed straight out of Auston’s apartment.

He was so mad during the drive home that he wanted to fight someone. Dylan heard him slam the door when he got back and immediately came over and hugged Mitch.

“Hey, what happened?” Dylan asked.

Mitch then poured it all out and Dylan just offered a sad smile.

“So, what are you thinking of doing?” Dylan asked.

  “I think that he was just flustered but I am mad. I’ll probably forgive him but not yet,” Mitch explained.

Dylan nodded and Mitch slipped into their bedroom for is nap. It took him a while to sleep but he did feel well rested.

“Good luck tonight,” Dylan smiled.

Mitch nodded and kissed him once before heading out. By the time he made it to the rink Auston was already there and Mitch made an effort to avoid him which Freddie noticed.

“You alright?” he asked, pulling him aside.

”Yeah, just an argument,” Mitch said.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

Auston tried to get his attention a couple of times but Mitch ignored him and he had to stop and prepare for the game. Coach had a couple of last things to say before they headed out onto the ice for warmup.

The game was great. Mitch had three points and they came away with an easy win. The locker room was appropriately loud afterwards and there were already people started to plan going out. Mitch really didn’t want to go out, instead wanting to go and slip into bed with Dylan.

“You coming out?” Willy asked him.

“Not tonight. I’m just going to go home.”

He noticed Auston staring at him so he quickly looked away. Mo made sure that he was alright before letting him head out. He drove straight home and headed to bed. Dylan was already asleep so he curled around his boyfriend and fell asleep as well.

 

*******

 

Auston left Mitch alone for a couple of days until they started their road trip through Western Canada and were roommates. After the flight to Calgary they headed straight to hotel and their hotel room was silent.

Auston was sorting out his own bags when Mitch disappeared out of the room, probably to hang out with someone else. He didn’t want to spend his time in a silent hotel room so he headed into Willy’s room instead and wasn’t surprised to find Kappy as well.

“Hey, man, how are you?” Willy asked as he came in and collapsed on the bed.

Auston just groaned and the two others let him collect his thoughts.

 

“What happened between you and Marns?” Willy asked when it was clear Auston wasn’t going to start.

“We got into fight.”

“About what?”

“Just about where we stood with our friendship.”

Willy looked at him in confusion and he just shrugged.

“It’s just he’s not telling me things and making me feel like he’s my best friend and I’m not his,” he explained.

“That’s a lie and you know it,” Kappy exclaimed.

“I know, it’s kind of stupid but we got into an argument about it and we haven’t talked about it yet,” Auston continued.

“Are you going to talk about it?”

“Sure, I just wanted to leave it for a couple of days but now that we are on the road it’s awkward sharing a room.”

The other two awkwardly laughed before changing the subjected and they mucked around for a few hours. By the time he made it back to the room and was thinking of going to bed but found Mitch in there already.

“Oh, hey,” he said.

Mitch looked up from his phone and offered a slight smile.

“Are we going to talk about it?” Mitch asked.

Auston sat down on his own bed and turned to face the winger.

“We should.”

Neither said anything for a minute and they sat awkwardly.

“I get why you were mad but you have to understand I was protecting my boyfriend,” Mitch finally started.

“I get that. I was just mad at the time but now that I have calmed down I better understand why you kept it secret,” Auston continued.

Mitch nodded and he didn’t say anything for a second.

“Really?”

“Of course, I just want to apologise to you for how I acted,” Auston added.

“It’s alright. And I should apologise because I was pretty rude as well.”

“Can I meet him?”

“Of course. When we get back you should come around and he’d love that,” Mitch smiled.

The tension dropped in the room and Mitch moved across the room to hug Auston.

“I’ll have to do that. It’ll be nice.”

Auston felt much better than he had done all week and was able to relax before heading to bed.

 

*******

 

Auston did feel nervous when he headed up to the apartment. They had to day off so Mitch had told him to come over whenever he was ready. When he knocked on the door he was slightly surprised that it was answered by Dylan.

He had an apron wrapped around his waist and a streak of flour across his face.

“Hey Auston, come in,” he smiled.

Auston followed him through into the kitchen where he found Mitch who had even more flour on his face.

“What happened to you?” Auston teased.

“I was making pizza and Mitch decided that he was going to come and get in the way so I sprayed him with flour,” Dylan smirked.

Mitch started protesting when a timer went off and Dylan moved around him to get into the oven. He pulled a couple of pizza out of the oven before placing them on the bench.

“Ready for lunch?” Dylan asked.

Mitch and Auston nodded so he cut it up and they moved to sit on the couch.

“So, what do you do then?” Auston asked Dylan.

“I’m about to finish my degree in Psychology and Stats,” he explained.

“You got a job lined up?”

“I’m going to be working for the Leafs and doing some analytics work.”

Auston asked him a few more questions about what he had done before they moved to talking about hockey. It was clear to Auston that Dylan probably knew more about hockey than Mitch and Auston and it was interesting to hear his thoughts.

It was also cool to see Mitch and Dylan together because they were clearly good together. Mitch was leaning against Dylan who had an arm wrapped casually around him.  During the conversation they would each turn to the other and share an in joke that Auston didn’t get.

They had finished eating when Mitch excused himself to go to the bathroom so Dylan turned to face him.

“Mitch told me what you said when you fought and if you dare to say anything like that again I won’t hold back this time,” Dylan threatened.

“Of course, I’m still disappointed in what I said so I would understand that,” Auston said.

“Then we aren’t going to have any problems.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I trust Mitch and he trusts you so, so do I.”

Auston smiled at that. He was able to relax a bit more now that Dylan liked him. Mitch appeared not long later and he slipped into Dylan’s lap and wrapped his arms around him.

“I’m not going to have to break up a fight am I?” he teased.

 “Never, I’m too nice,” Dylan smirked.

Mitch just laughed and they continued talking about hockey for a while. Auston noticed after a while that Mitch had finally tired himself out for once and was starting to fall asleep. His face was beginning to rest in the crook of Dylan’s neck.

“I think that that is our cue to go to bed,” Dylan smirked.

“Yeah, I should head out,” Auston said.

“Ok, we should do this again,” Dylan suggested.

Auston agreed because despite his nerves at the beginning he enjoyed himself and he would definitely enjoy spending more time with Dylan in the future.

“I’m just going to dump this koala on our bed before you head out,” Dylan said.

It was quite funny to watch Dylan wrap Mitch’s legs around his waist before carrying him further into the apartment. It was clearly a move that he had practiced plenty of times. Mitch had a lot of energy but he underestimated when he was about to crash and has the tendency to just end up asleep in random position.

Dylan appeared moments later and wrapped Auston in a surprise hug.

“Thanks for this,” he whispered.

“Hey, thanks for being nice to me. You didn’t have to after the things that I said to him but you still did,” Auston admitted.

“Of course, I gained a friend out of this,” Dylan told him.

“And so did I?”

Auston left not long later and he was in a good mood. Dylan was right in that he gained a friend today and he hoped that one day he would find someone as good for him as Dylan is for Mitch. They were clearly in love with each other.

He had learnt more about Mitch since running into Dylan in the locker room that one time month ago. He was definitely looking forward spending more time with the pair and was hopeful that Dylan would start coming to more team events with the other families and get to know all the other players as well.

He felt better than he had in weeks and finally felt that he and Mitch were back on great terms again and he couldn’t feel much better.

 

 

 

 


End file.
